Vardi, Moshe
VARDI, MOSHE
VARDI, MOSHE (1938– ), Israeli journalist. Vardi was born in Tel Aviv, the son of Dr. Herzl *Rosenblum, editor of *Yedioth Aharonoth. He studied international relations in London, and in 1962 was appointed London correspondent of Ha-Boker. In 1965 he joined Yedioth Aharonoth as news editor. (In order not to be identified as his father's son, he hebraized his last name.) Vardi possessed a finely tuned sense for evaluating the news value of events, and a skilled pen in newswriting. Against the growth of television news, Vardi widened the role of the newspaper to also provide background analysis to news events. In 1986 he left the newspaper after Dov *Yudkovsky was chosen as editor instead of him, following Rosenblum's retirement, and joined Haaretz as deputy editor. But after Yudkovsky's dismissal in 1989, Vardi was appointed editor. His editorship was interrupted in the 1990s when he stood trial in the so-called wiretapping affair involving Maariv and Yedioth Aharonoth. Vardi, along with Yedioth Aharonoth's assignments editor Ruth Ben-Ari, were convicted of tapping the phones of Maariv publisher Ofer *Nimrodi and editor Dov *Yudkovsky, though the court determined that Vardi did not know where the tapes had come from. Vardi was given a suspended sentence. When the trial over, Yedioth Aharonoth's publisher, Arnon *Mozes, reinstated Vardi as editor, a post he held until his retirement in 2004. His son, Doron Rosenblum, was also a journalist.
[Yoel Cohen (2nd ed.)]